The roots of Faithscape Learning Pod in Casa Grande, AZ, stretch back to founder Deja Hillis’s childhood. “As a student myself with a disability, a hearing disability, I got to see kind of firsthand what my teachers dealt with trying to accommodate me. But also, I got to see the stresses of children as they cope through disability,” she recalls. After completely losing her hearing when she was 13, she knew she wanted to teach so she could support kids who were going through similar difficulties.
Deja also loved writing, which she’d gotten into as a way to express her feelings as she coped with her hearing loss. She majored in English and then became a charter school teacher after she graduated. She had a somewhat Pollyanna-ish vision of what teaching would be like, but the reality was quite different. Her school was very regulated and didn’t allow her to be creative in her student management or teaching.
After around 10 years of teaching in charter and district schools, Deja knew she wanted to teach a different way. She wasn’t sure how to do that, so she began researching. As her own daughter, who was very advanced, approached school age, Deja started panicking about where she would send her. Then she learned about microschools and the KaiPod Catalyst program.
After completing the KaiPod program in 2023, Deja opened Faithscape last year. Now in its second year, the learning center serves 18 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. It operates Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and parents can choose from two-day, three-day, or four-day (full-time) plans.
The day starts with students gathering in a circle, waiting for everyone to arrive. One student kicks things off with their signature chant: “Who are we? FS Kids, FS Kids.” After celebrating and sharing how everyone is doing, they dive into Bible study using Sermons for Kids.
They use The Good and the Beautiful curriculum—partly because many families were already using it, but also because it’s accessible and diverse in its imagery. Deja and her husband, a military veteran, rotate through math and reading lessons with students grouped by age and ability. They take several breaks to keep the kids fresh and engaged. After lunch, Deja’s sister comes in and works as an academic coach, focusing mostly on science and social studies, while Deja teaches writing. They finish the day with enrichment time, which includes PE, art, t‑shirt design, cooking, and similar activities.
Without a traditional playground, students have gotten creative on the pavement outside, inventing games with PE equipment. “It’s honestly like it’s the best. Like seeing them just come up with so many creative ways to have fun without a playground, and there are no complaints. None. They’re just having a blast,” she says with a smile.
Deja plans to cap enrollment at 24 students and is considering adding middle school grades, prompted by her second- and third-grade students already asking where they’ll go after fifth grade. She told them, “If you get to fifth grade and you graduate fifth grade, you can still be here,” and then realized she’d just made a promise and better start thinking ahead to fulfill it. “Why not?” she says. And that, she adds, is the beauty of microschooling. It can be what she and her families need it to be.
All 18 students currently use Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program to afford tuition. Deja thinks it may have been possible to start Faithscape without the ESA, but it would have been hard for families to choose it. “A parent has an option: either go to a school, public school, for free or pay, you know, out of pocket. And right now, with the economy and things going on, I know it would have been very difficult for parents to afford to do this,” she says.
For someone who hated being in the spotlight as a child, running a school seemed unlikely. “I never would have thought I would do this because I’m not that person. I’m not somebody who likes talking publicly, public speech, anything where I’m the center of attention. As a kid, I’ve always really despised that,” she says. “But look at me. I’m just growing. I’m learning. I’m just going with it.”
Her advice for aspiring school founders flows from that realization about herself. “Don’t let anything stop you,” she urges, while acknowledging it may sound cliché. “The hardest thing is thinking that it’s going to be hard. Your perception is your reality. Just do it.”